Battery-elevator.



' T. s. STILES.

BATTERY ELEVATOR.

APPLICATION FILED M16. l4. ISM.

I 1,244,558. Patented Oct. 30,1917. 1

" face for the electrical connection.

piece 4 of the elevator. Two batteries or cells are illustrated at Z) and I) on the shelves 5 and (5 of said elevator. It will be understood, of course, that the shelves 7 and 8 will also ordinarily carry similar batteries.

For the purpose of making electrical connection with the terminals of the batteries without disturbing any other battery when one is being connected or disconnected, I employ one or more common conductors extending lengthwise of the elevator and preferably secured to the side-pieces thereof such as-3 and 3. Each of these side-pieces is illustrated as having a central, vertical groove, such as 3, for the reception of such a common conductor, and the common conductor employed in the apparatus illustrated in the main views is an insulated or covered wire, the metallic portion of which is illustrated at w and the insulation at 2'. Two common conductors are shown for connection to the opposite terminals of the 1-0 spective batteries b, I), etc. Each of these common conductors is preferably brought into electrical connection with a terminal or terminals of one or more batteries by detachable connections, the preferred means employed being suitable binding-posts secured to the common conductorsf In the main views each of the insulated wires is held in place in its channel in the side-piece of the elevator by cleats, such as 11, preferably insulating cleats of fiber, secured in place by suitable means, such as screws 12, and these cleats also serve as means for supporting and insulating the funding-posts, designated generally by 79. The construction of the binding-posts may be any suitable for the purpose, but in connection with an insulated conductor such as shown I prefor to employ a screw, such as 13, threaded at its upper end and having a smooth intermediate shank with an enlarged bifurcated head, such as 13, forked to straddle abared portion of the wire w. The shoulder between the-enlarged head '13 and the shank of thescrew is seated in a countersunk or undercutopening in the inner face of a cleat 11 and is thus prevented from being pulled out. A metallic nut is shown at 14: (see Fig. 8)for holding the screw 13 firmly in place and also provides a wide contact sur- A wing nut, such as 15, and preferably a loose washer, 16, between which and the nut 14 a terminal conductor of a cell may be clamped, com'plete-in-this construction each individual'bindi-ng-post, After each common conductori's in place and the screw-post 13 is properly located, as just described, the mainlng space resulting from the removal of the lnsulation from the wire w to permit contact with" the head 13 is preferably filled insulating cement all around in b flowin y in the" groove 3* "adjacentto the oint "an the joint, as shown at 17. The woml-work and cleats are then usually coated with insulating paint.

In the modification shown in Fig. (3 the common conductor instead of being an insulated wire is a bus-bar, preferably of cop-- per, and is designated by w. It usually fills a substantially rectangular and relatively shallow groove in the side-piece 3 (or 3) so as to be substantially flush with the inner surface of the part 3 and may be secured in place by any suitable means, such as the screws 18. The binding-posts, designated generally by p, employed in connection with this bus-bar are secured directly to it and are substantially similar to the bii'iding-posts 7'), except that the screw-post is screwed directly into the bus-bar. This construction is obviously somewhat simpler than that first described. When the hindingposts are in place the bus bar and the wood side-piece are also preferably covered with a coating of insulating paint.

The manner in which the individual bat teries or cells Z), 6, etc, cooperate with a pair of parallel common conductors of the kind just described will be evident by referring to Fig. 2, from which it will be seen that opposite icrminals of each battery are connected to binding-posts carried by common conductors at opposite sides of the elevator. Any battery may be disconnected electrically by simply loosening the wing- .nuts of the two binding-posts to which it is connected and then withdrawing its terminal conductors t and 5 from said binding-posts, and then removed from its shelf without interfering in any i'nai'mer whatsoever with the electrical. coni'iections to any other cell. Because of the parallel connections of the respective batteries in the track-circuit as a result of the use of common conductors as described, it will be plain that on withdrawing the elevator from the battery chute it will be the work of only a few moments to disconnect any cell and insert a new one-and restore the electrical connections at the points of interru ption'without any disturbance of such other cells.

The conductors of the track-circuit may be connected to the conductors commonjto the batteries in substantially the same manner as just described, that is, by connecting the terminals Z and Z of the track-circuit to binding-posts 39 secured to the two common conductors on the elevator.

1. A battery elevator, embodying a sidepiece having at its inner face a longitudinal groove for receivinga conductor, a comnion conductor for the batteries which conductor is seated-in said groove, and a plurality of Copies of this patent nay be obtained for thereof and in position for electrical con v ynection'with terminals ofdifierent batteries I Carried by said elevator.

2. AHba-ttery elevator, embodying a, pair vof side-pieces each having at its innen facev a longitudinal groove fol-receiving a; condilator, a pair ofcommon conductors tor theb-atteries said conductors being seated re- Y f spectivelyqin said'grooves, and a. plurality ofpairs ofbinding-posts seeuredto said common conductors at different points in Q the lengths thereof and in position for o parallel connection in pairs with opposite terminals of ditferent batteries carried by;

said elevator. l

" 3. A battery elevator, comprising a plow rality of shelves, side pieces secured to and extending between the same, common con- I v "ductors for the batteries embedded in'said side "pieces and binding posts extending f om the conductors above eacl1- of the.

shelves.

' 4. A battery elevator, compr isin ,ajil'nrality of shelves, side pieces exten ing, be tween and connected to the shelves, bus eondlictors embedded in the' sifde pieces, bind-H ing posts connected to and extending inwardly from the bus'conductors ebove certainof the shelves, and a pair of 'binding j q 80 v ductors adapted torecel ve theterm'inals of x posts adjacent to the upper endsofthe' conF the track circuit;

, Signedat New'York in county of New this 11th day York and State ofNew York of August,"A. D. 1914.

THOMAS GEORGE STILES. T

' Witnesses J OHN A. Ja s,

C. S, CHAMPION,

five cents each, by addressing the commissioner of new; Washington, D 0. l 1 l 

